Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I'm such a sucker.

Did you guys know that as soon as I heard about that sock cruise, I'd be doing everything in my power to figure out how to go? Well...I thought maybe I'd have a little self-control and think it over logically, take some time to ponder, but no. I did wait a little while before I mentioned it to Bill, and his reaction was about what I expected. So I e-mailed the link to my mom (who is much more adventurous when it comes to yarning around, even though she's not a knitter), and I think I'm well on my way to convincing her to come with me.

Someday I'm going to realize that I can't do everything, but that day has not yet arrived. Bill is so delighted at the prospect of five days at home by himself that he doesn't care what I have to spend! He's already making plans to clean the basement, although I have a feeling he might spend the entire time with his horribly neglected PS2.

I've also got my weaselly little brain trying to figure out how to attend the fall Tigard Knitting Guild retreat (with Nancy Bush). This is one where I can't take the kids, but Bill's a good sport about being left with them. If Owen's still not weaned, I'm even hatching a plan to have Bill drive him out there, leave him overnight (assuming I have a room to myself or a VERY understanding roommate), and pick him up in the morning. He's amenable - isn't he a great husband?

Anyway, enough about my trips. I want to show you the most fantastic new product. Cat tipped us off to this in class on Saturday, and when I hit Fabric Depot on Monday for some buttons, I found two of them (and immediately grabbed them both).

Yes, folks, that's a Chibi with two new sizes of needles. The big gold thing on the left is my old Chibi needle. The new one has two medium-sized needles (good for that dk and sport-weight stuff) and one tiny little needle (um, could that be any more perfect for sock-weight?). And all with the curved tips I can't live without. If you haven't tried a curved tip yarn needle, do it. You'll never go back.

Speaking of Cat, I want to let Amanda know that she's not dumb - Cat isn't from Portland, she's from Seattle. I was including all of the Pacific Northwest in my "in-the-area" reference from the last post... My bad for not being more clear!

In other news, I'm getting a quote to have my design website redesigned. I've been trying to maintain it myself using the software offered by my webhosts, but I haven't had the time to do it properly and the software is often sorely lacking. Since I'm going to have my web address listed in a couple big publications in the next year, I really need to get my act together and have it professionally done. I'll let you know when it's finished, and I'm hoping to start putting patterns up for sale before the end of summer. I'm going to start with Winter Branches, since it's no longer on Knit Net, and there will be others in the works very soon. I'm also going to try to open a wholesale account with Blue Moon so I can sell those patterns that I've designed on my website as well.

I got my Summer Sock Party swap partner assigned to me yesterday, and one of the patterns that will be up for sale soon is going to be the swap sock pattern. I'm going to design and knit the first sock, and then send it to Melissa to knit the second sock as a test knit/edit. How fun is that? I think the swap is such a great idea because I will be knitting a pair of socks and have a pair to wear at the end, but it's two different socks! So no having to knit the same sock twice! I usually don't mind knitting the second sock, but why knit the same thing twice when you don't have to?

Finally, I've gotten another acceptance for a design submission that has been at Interweave since January. I'm going to have a design in the Spring '07 issue of Knit Scene! It was a design that was on the short list for Lace Style, but must've gotten cut and passed on to the Knit Scene folks. I would've loved to have been in Lace Style, but hey, Knit Scene will be great, too! Yay!

I will try to post once more before Saturday, but if I don't, look for the big report from Black Sheep on Sunday along with a huge sock update. Remember, if you're going to be at Black Sheep, meet up with us at the Blue Moon booth at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon! I can't wait!

About Me

Welcome to the wild & wooly world of knitwear designer Chrissy Gardiner. I'm a mom of two who spends as much time as possible knitting and designing knitting patterns. I have been published in various books and magazines as well as printing my own pattern line, Gardiner Yarn Works. I published my first book, Toe-Up!, in the summer of 2009. It's about socks, of course!